Polanski calls for workplace temperature cap as Labour dithers

If you’re reading this in the office to distract from how swelteringly hot you are, we may have good news for you. The Green Party is calling for workplaces to have maximum temperature caps:

Climate justice is social justice. https://t.co/b2I31KSLWf

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) May 26, 2026

Beat the heat

As the Greens have noted, those calling for caps include the Climate Change Committee (CCC) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC). Of the former, the CCC has published a report, which notes:

Set maximum temperature regulations for workplaces. Maximum working temperature regulations would address the increasing risks that high temperatures pose to workers’ safety and incentivise the deployment of the necessary cooling. Businesses are largely responsible for investing in their own adaptations but must ensure that workplaces and working practices are safe for employees, including for those working outside.

The report adds:

We propose a target indoor temperature range of 16°C–25°C, informed by existing minimum workplace temperature regulations and guidelines on upper limits for comfort and cognitive performance in school spaces with normal levels of activity.

Maintaining cool temperatures would require air conditioning. This would have made the policy difficult for the Greens to get behind in the past, because air conditioning is energy intensive. Renewables have progressed so much, however, that we can realistically expect to hit net zero in the coming decades.

Cooling isn’t the only solution either, with the report noting “flexible staffing” can allow businesses to remain open without turning the air con up to 11. As Polanski has said, insulation can reduce temperatures too:

We could have seen a nationwide programme of home insulation, going door to door, making sure every home can keep in the heat, so no-one would risk getting sick or dying because they can’t afford heating in the winter.

Why is this Government running from crisis to crisis? https://t.co/YqJSz4Kiqj

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) May 27, 2026

Insulation keeps homes cooler too!

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) May 27, 2026

If we’re installing air conditioning, we should use this opportunity to mandate adequate Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, which prevent the spread of airborne illnesses like coronavirus. Such systems would obviously represent a cost to businesses, but this would balance out in the long run through decreased sickness. It would additionally enable us to better weather any future pandemics.

Workers rights

The TUC has also spoken out on maximum workplace temperatures, writing in December 2025:

The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 say that your employer must maintain a reasonable temperature where you work, but they do not specify a maximum temperature.

They add:

The TUC has called for the introduction of an upper limit on workplace temperature so that employers would be forced to act when the temperature inside reaches 24°C. It would mean that staff could be sent home, and their employers prosecuted, if temperatures at work reach 30°C (or 27°C for those engaged in physically demanding work). The TUC has set out the case for a legally enforceable maximum temperature.

Said legal case covers the negative health impacts that the heat can have on people, including:

• Dizziness.
• Delirium.
• Fatigue.
• Rashes.
• Collapse.
• Cramps.
• Exhaustion.
• Stroke.
• Death.

While most people don’t want to be disgustingly hot at work, you have to remember that many Britons treat misery as a national duty, and as such have responded like this:

With air conditioning and buildings built to get heat out of them quickly, most buildings here have no air conditioning and sre built to trap heat in and prevent it leaving

— Jackson Macmanus 🏳‍🌈 (@JacksonMacmanus) May 26, 2026

They're also calling for it to be cooler outside – that's why they're opposing climate change

— Willem Moore (@willem_moore_uk) May 27, 2026

Thankfully, not everyone reacted with misplaced fury:

People being wilfully dense here and ignoring the fact this is *obviously* about ensuring proper safety standards are met (aircon, water availability, breaks, not expecting strenuous work in extreme heat) on the part of employers – not having the day off every time it hits 20. https://t.co/q79oYcXLzK

— IN THE 80s PETER MANDELSON WENT MAD 🥀 (@ABU_N3RVEGAS) May 26, 2026

The battle

Because the Green Party is supporting something that will make people’s lives better, we’ve no doubt the establishment media will soon come out against it. We’ll have columnists telling us they worked in 75°C kitchens when they were a student, and it never did them any harm; we’ll have others arguing Polanski is clamping down on our God-given right to die of heat stroke in a Slough-based HQ of a regional insurance broker.

When the backlash hits, ignore the noise and remember that things can and should get better.

Featured image via Jon Rowley (Getty Images) / Dan Kitwood (Getty Images)